EN VOYAGE
I T had already been announced in the press that an attempt was going to be made by the Liverpool strikers to get the men to come out in sympathy, but the Cunard authorities went ahead as though everything was normal. We reached Southampton by coach at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and were on board in half an hour.
The ship felt `dead'—there was none of the pre-sailing bustle or air of expectancy. though the librarian steward told me the ship would be sailing at 12.45 and issued tickets for tables in the dining saloon. At lunch it was apparent there was a difli- culty somewhere—no menus, poor service and so on. The ship had not sailed at the scheduled time but there had been no announcement of any kind. The public-address system re- mained silent—as it did for the whole twenty-four hours we were on board.
Wandering round the ship I came across a blackboard out- side the Purser's Office in the First Class (a place where as a Tourist passenger there was no reason for me to go) about 2.30 which announced 'with regret' that until men who had `absented themselves from duty' returned the ship would not sail; it was hoped she would sail at 9 a.m. on Sunday. About thirty minutes later a similar board with the same notice was placed, not in a particularly prominent place, in the Tourist section. No other announcements were made. I met an assist- ant*purser and asked him what the chances of a Sunday sailing were; `Might as well be honest with you,' he said. 'Nil.' Later I heard by chance that landing cards were being issued to those who wanted a stroll on shore; there was no announcement of this. By 4.30 a stream of strikers were leaving the ship with their bags; they had to pass the Tourist Class blackboard— 'See that notice about sailing tomorrow?' I heard one say. 'They've got a hope!'
About 5.30 I wandered up to the First Class Purser's Office again, to find a new notice being printed slowly and exasperat- ingly carefully, with frequent rubbings out because the letters were not straight; I waited until it got as far as !passengers will be disembarked' and went down to the other Purser's Office to get details. The Tourist Purser knew nothing at all about the disembarkation; he had to ring up to find out. A considerable time later the Tourist blackboard was suitably amended. Half of the passengers' tickets were returned personally to the cabins. Later, the word got around that the other half had to be collected from the Purser's Office. There was no announce- ment; people were delayed the next morning because they had not got their tickets.
On the credit side for the Cunard Company it must be admitted that they did serve lunch, dinner and breakfast, and arrange for coaches to take people back to London. The Cunard office in London. too, were helpful regarding transfers. But passages could have been obtained on boats of other lines sailing on Saturday or Sunday if one had known in time.
The chief complaint was of inadequate announcement—only two blackboards to be read by 460 people. One result was the
R. G.
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